Why does the ice towards the bottome of the tray seem to be shrinking? Is it meltong a little bit everytime the freexer door is opened?
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It is normal for ice cubes to shrink, and even disappear, as they age. This process is similar to evaporation, but is called sublimation. During the process of sublimation, the water goes directly from a solid state (ice) to a gaseous state (vapor), without ever passing through the liquid state.
Freezers are boxes where the temperature is kept below zero, and they are periodically opened to allow warmer moist air to enter into them as people access their contents. That warm air then cools, reducing the amount of moisture it can hold resulting in that moisture condensing on surfaces and freezing into frost. If this is allowed to continue for long periods of time there would be a buildup of ice on everything in the freezer, which is something users want to avoid. This ice can particularly build up on the heat exchange element reducing its efficiency.
To avoid this most freezers are designed with “defrost” cycles, where the freezer is briefly heated until the surface slightly melts and then refrozen. As the frost briefly becomes liquid it can slightly evaporate, preventing this buildup of frost and gradually clearing it. It also results in any uncovered ice slightly shrinking over time as well, which is why your very old ice cubes look like they are eroding.
Are you sure it isn’t just the shape of your ice cube tray? Most don’t actually make cubes, mind make shapes that are wider on top than the bottom
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